Life

“If God is the author of life, there must be a script. Where there is a script, there must be a story. It is not that the world is a stage and we can pick and choose different scripts. The individual subplot must gain its direction from the larger story of God’s purpose for our lives.”
Ravi Zacharias at Christ Church Presbyterian, Atlanta, Georgian, 2016.

“The story of the gospel is the story of eternal life. My life is unique and will endure eternally in God’s presence. I will never be ‘no more.’ I will never be lost because I will be with the One who saves me.”
Seeing Jesus from the East (2020, co-authored with Abdu H Murray)

His Spiritual Journey

“I came to Christ after a life of protracted failure and, unable to face the consequences, I sought to end it all. It was on a bed of suicide that a Bible was brought to me, and in a cry of desperation, I invited Jesus Christ into my life. It was a prayer, a plea, a commitment, and a hope.”
The Logic of God (2019)

“Almost 30 years to the day after this decision, my wife and I were visiting India and decided to visit my grandmother’s grave. With the help of a gardener we walked through the accumulated weeds and rubble until we found the stone marking her grave. With his bucket of water and a small brush, the gardener cleared off the years of caked-on dirt. To our utter surprise, under her name, a verse gradually appeared. My wife clasped my hand and said, ‘Look at the verse!’ It read: ‘Because I live, you shall live also.’ ”
“From Disparate Threads,” A Slice of Infinity on RZIM.org

“I can now enjoy the benefit of time’s distant view. The Jesus I know and love today I encountered at the age of 17. But his name and his tug in my life mean infinitely more now than they did when I first surrendered my life to him. I came to him because I did not know which way to turn. I have remained with him because there is no other way I wish to turn.”
Jesus Among Other Gods (2000)

Truth

“It is the very nature of truth that presents us with this reality. Truth by definition is exclusive. Everything cannot be true. If everything is true, then nothing is false. And if nothing is false, then it would also be true to say everything is false.”
The Logic of God (2019)

“God has put enough into the world to make faith in him a most reasonable thing. But he has left enough out to make it impossible to live by sheer reason or observation alone.”
“A Bigger Story,” Think Again on RZIM.org

“I want to talk to you about four absolutes that you try to define: evil, justice, love, and forgiveness. Do you know of the one place in the world where these four converge? They converge on a hill called Calvary where all the evil intents of the human heart are hurled upon the very Son of God, where God in his justice took upon himself that justice, but he manifested his love for you and me in a way that is indescribable, and he offers you and me forgiveness.”
“Navigating with Absolutes in a Relativistic World” at UN Prayer Breakfast

Apologetics

“We are living in an era when apologetics is indispensable, but at the same time, we need a Christian apologetic that is not merely heard — it must also be seen. The field of apologetics deals with the hard questions posed to the Christian faith. Having had deep questions myself, I listen carefully to the questions raised. I always bear in mind that behind every question is a questioner. The convergence of intellectual and existential struggles drives a person to a brutal honesty in the questions he or she has.”
The Logic of God (2019)

“It is Christ who shows that unless a person’s pain is understood, one will never understand a person’s soul.”
The Logic of God (2019)

“This call to a life reflecting the person of Christ is the ultimate calling upon the apologist. Skeptics are not slow to notice when there is a disparity, and because of that, may question the whole gospel in its supernatural claim. Yet when they are met with gentleness and respect, we will help meet the deepest longings of the heart and mind— and they will find where true discovery lies. Let us live so accordingly.”
The Logic of God (2019)

“… Only in Jesus do you find the answers to the deepest questions of the soul, answers that correspond to reality and in totality are systemically coherent. Indeed, only Jesus describes our condition, provides for our malady, explains suffering, offers his life as an atoning sacrifice, and rose again from the dead to give eternal life to all who would believe. The gospel is the only story where grace and forgiveness are central and unearned — and that is good news to all people everywhere, whatever colour or ethnicity.”
“A Kaleidoscope of Colors,” Think Again on RZIM.org

Human Rights

“You cannot talk about human rights without the right to be human. You cannot treat a child as a quantity; a human being is not a quantity, a human being is an entity. Every human being has intrinsic worth and a reflective splendor, because every individual has been created by God in His image.” Ravi’s Facebook, Jan. 22, 2016

“In Christianity, the essence of each and every person, the individual reality of each life, is sacred. It is sacred because intrinsic value has been given to us by our Creator, who has revealed himself in the starry skies and upon a nail- scarred cross.”
The Logic of God (2019)

Literary Influences

“Hound of Heaven” by Francis Thompson

“Readers of English poetry will recall the turbulent life of Francis Thompson. His father wanted him to study at Oxford, but Francis lost his way in drugs and failed to make the grade time and again. This was a slumbering genius, if only his life could be rescued.”

“When Francis finally succumbed to the pursuing Christ, he penned his immortal Hound of Heaven:

I fled Him down the nights and down the days.
I fled Him down the arches of the years.
I fled Him down the labyrinthine ways of my own mind:
And in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
Down titanic glooms of chasmed fears
From those strong feet that followed, that followed after.
For though I knew His love that followed
Yet I was sore adread
Lest having Him I have naught else beside.
And he ends:
Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest me.

“I am utterly convinced that neither walls nor unfortunate mishaps nor poor decisions can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Perhaps you have noticed footprints of one following closely across your own life. Will you follow them?”
“Love that Followed,” essay on RZIM.org

“He Giveth More Grace” by Annie Johnson Flint

“I will close with this poem. One of my colleagues from our Austrian office reminded me of this poem by Annie Johnson Flint that I have often quoted. The words and truths for us are beautiful as ever.

‘He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,
He sendeth more strength when the labours increase,
To added affliction, He addeth His mercy,
To multiplied trials, He multiplies peace.

‘When we have exhausted our store of endurance,
When our strength has failed ere the day is half-done,
When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,
Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

‘His love has no limit, His grace has no measure,
His power no boundary known unto men,
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus,
He giveth and giveth and giveth again.’”

“An Update on My Health: Starting Chemotherapy” on RZIM.org

“Lord, It Belongs Not to My Care” by Puritan Richard Baxter

“Lord, it belongs not to my care
Whether I die or live;
To love and serve Thee is my share,
And this Thy grace must give.”

“If life be long, I will be glad,
That I may long obey;
If short, yet why should I be sad
To welcome endless day?

“Christ leads me through no darker rooms
Than He went through before;
He that unto God’s kingdom comes
Must enter by this door.

“Come, Lord, when grace hath made me meet
Thy blessed face to see;
For if Thy work on earth be sweet
What will Thy glory be!

“Then I shall end my sad complaints
And weary sinful days,
And join with the triumphant saints
That sing my Saviour’s praise.

“My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim;
But ’tis enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with Him.”

Ravi’s Facebook, May 11, 2020